Ratatouille Movie:
Remy the Rat in a Paris Restaurant

2007 marked the release of the Ratatouille movie, the eighth film by Pixar and directed by Brad Bird. This is the perfect name for the film because it has the sound "rat" in it, for the rats in the film, and it is a French dish - a country vegetable stew.

The movie takes place mostly in Paris, inside a fancy, beautiful, highly reputable restaurant.

Paris was a major part of the story. This was the first time a Pixar film had a setting in Europe and the city looks absolutely beautiful.

• Ratatouille Movie Plot

Animators got to learn commercial food preparation by well-known chefs so that the kitchen scenes would be accurate and another new bit of research was about rats.

In the Ratatouille movie, the rats are more animal-like, less anthropomorphic, and it can be creepy and fascinating at the same time to watch. For example, scenes where the rats move as a group, like when they come down in the ceiling and run off at the beginning of the show, they look so real. But a closer look shows the faces and expressions of an animated character.

Much was done to make the rats more cute and less creepy. For example, the rat's hands were always held up, chest level. That position is non-threatening and just looks better. Even cute. I think it works for the most part; the individual characters look fine.

All the characters, both rats and humans, are wonderful - whether you want to despise them, like Chef Skinner, or cheer them on, like Colette. The characters are divvied up into two sections:

• The Main Ratatouille Characters
• Ratatouille Minor Characters

The Included Pixar Short

The Pixar short film included is called Lifted. Like most of the Pixar short films, this one has no dialogue and it's about a guy who gets abducted by aliens, except the alien who is doing the abducting is taking an "abduction test" in the same fashion that a new driver takes a test to get his license. It's really cute!

The second short was released with the DVD called Your Friend the Rat. It's a presentation by Remy and Emile, the two rat brothers, about the history, culture and biology of rats.